Arriving in JBAY...

Tuesday, January 19, 2009:

We finally arrived in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa about 24 hours after we left Atlanta. Our Delta flight left at 3:40pm Eastern Time (10:40pm JBay time). The flight wasn’t full, thank goodness, so Chris and Gavin each had 3 seats to themselves and Lindsay and I had 2 seats to ourselves. That basically meant that we could lay down…what a life saver! We flew almost 9 hours and landed in Jakar, Africa. A few passengers got off, but mainly we landed to refuel and change crew. Officials boarded the plane and basically took it apart, unbuckling all the seat cushions…Lindsay said they were checking for bombs. They would look through the carry-on bags and make you point out which ones were yours. After about 30 minutes, we took off again for another 9 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. The trip was so long, but thanks to my Tylenol PM coma and Chris’ ambien coma, we slept half of the first flight and ¾ths of the second flight…it’s all a blur! When I wasn’t sleeping, I was watching tv episodes of House, Bones and Friends or reading Twilight (I’m obsessed!). When we landed in Joburg, we had a 3 hour layover. (FYI: Johannesburg is the most dangerous city in the world…yes, I said in the world. Fortunately, we only had a 3 hour lay-over, so we never left the airport.) We ate dinner at Mugg & Bean…kinda like a Panera Bread, and then boarded the next plane. This South African Airlines flight was to Port Elizabeth and only lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes. The best part about this flight was the mango juice…the best juice I have ever tasted! When we arrived, we went through customs really fast and got our bags. For the 4 of us, we had 6 checked bags and 5 carry-ons! (Thanks Brian and Trish for the XL international bag, huge lifesaver!) Once we got our bags, Gavin picked up our rental car, a super small two-door. (Another FYI: In South Africa, you drive on the left side of the road and the driver sits in the left side of the car. Plus, all the cars are manual with the shifter on the driver's left side. Good thing Gavin is driving…he’s left-handed which seems to help, and he’s driven here several times before.) Their friends, Marco and Roshae, met us to help transport our bags from Port Elizabeth to Jeffreys Bay, about a 45 minute drive. When we finally got to our flat (condo), it was about 9:30 or 10pm JBay time. Our flat is across the street from the beach with a gorgeous view. It has two bedrooms and two baths with a nice size balcony, everything is updated and modern. There isn’t any air conditioning, which we were concerned about at first, but the breeze off the beach is so cool that you don’t even notice it, plus there are ceiling fans everywhere. We were pretty exhausted when we arrived at our flat, but decided to unpack before getting in bed. None of us had any trouble falling asleep.


Wednesday, January 21, 2009:

Chris and I are sleeping in the front bedroom by the beach. Since we slept with the balcony doors open, the sun woke us up around 6:45 this morning…so beautiful! Surprisingly, we really weren’t that tired. We showered and got ready for our first day in JBay. Lindsay and Gavin took us to breakfast at this café called In Foods. It is owned by Jane, a lady they know. The food is amazing! Everything is organic and made fresh everyday. We ordered cappuccino flat whites (basically coffee with steamed milk)…the best coffee I have ever tasted! Lindsay ordered the Mediterranean omelet, Gavin and I ordered the English omelet and Chris ordered the scrambled egg sandwich. Everything was huge and tasted so fresh. Ok, so one of the craziest things about South Africa is how much everything costs. The currency here is the Rand and it’s about 10.2 to the dollar. So, for instance, our breakfast this morning cost R243,00 (super expensive to a South African, but only $24.00 to us which is ridiculously cheap). I am amazed at 1) everything is so inexpensive in US dollars and 2) everything is so expensive in Rand. We went to the grocery store, Pick and Pay, and bought food for the four of us and it cost R860,00 (remember that’s only $86.00). Then, we went to this store called Games (think Wal-mart meets Bed Bath and Beyond) and bought a hair dryer for R99,99 (again only $9.99). I was just blown away thinking about how South Africans can afford anything. They make on average R14,00/hour ($1.40/hour) for working a retail job. So, to purchase our groceries, a South African would have to work over 61 hours…that seems like so much! Alright enough of my Rand to Dollar tangent, back to our day. After breakfast, we drove through the township to Ithemba (pronounced Itemba) which is the orphanage/church that Luo funds. Ok, so a little about JBay. Basically, there is a road that divides the city, the whites live on one side and the blacks live on the other. Where the blacks live is called the township, there are two: Oceanview and Tokyo Sexwale (pronounced Sequale). Ithemba is located in Tokyo Sexwale. When we arrived at Ithemba, one of the teachers opened the gate for us (it is completely walled in with a locked gate…it’s to keep people from breaking in at night). Once we got out of the car, we were bombarded with children…the cutest children you have ever seen. They don’t care who you are, they just want to hug you and have you pick them up and show them some love. Some of them speak Afrikans and some speak Cosa (two of the languages in South Africa…there are 14 official languages). A few speak some English…they learn English at Ithemba every afternoon. When you ask them their name, you say, “Vat der nom”. Most of the time you can’t understand when they pronounce their names, but you just try. They say Machelle for my name and Crish (roll the R) for Chris. They do know “What’s up” in English, and they yell it all the time when we are around. Once we left Ithemba, we went to Deo Doxa (the church) to meet Ria (she runs Ithemba and is also the accountant at Deo Doxa. We went to lunch at The Greek. It is a newer restaurant that has doner kebabs (like what we ate in Germany, only tons better). The rest of the day we rested. Around 7pm, some South African girls that Lindsay knows came over for dinner. We made chicken, rice and salad. Gavin and Chris went and met some of the guys at Cafe' Kima. We each had a good time. It was fun getting to know the girls and asking them all about South Africa and the differences between them and us.

So overall it has been a great trip! We are having a great time! Hope everyone is doing well. I'll try and post more in a few days!

We love you guys!